By: Deniece Griffin
November 6, 2020 – Each year, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute is honored to partner with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Atlanta for their annual Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards (GSEA). Even during a pandemic, the show must go on and it did! Six finalists from universities around the region competed for cash prizes and a chance to continue on to the Global Finals later in the year.
Georgia State University was well represented among the finalist and semi-finalist groupings:
- The three student entrepreneurs who ranked as finalists were; Nicole Toole of Conserve Robert Hatcher of Aurign, and Viswa Muudigonda of Kemnu – who presented their businesses via the livestream pitch competition. After their presentation, they each responded to relevant questions from the judges.
- Three semi-finalists also represented the university during the competition and they were: Adenike Ayandeji, Pure Lush ATL, James Chidi Okolo, Nspire and Donnell Ray of Solarous Studios. The semi-finalists had the opportunity to participate in an exclusive EO Atlanta Accelerator Learning Day Session on Business Strategy.
A distinguished group of EO member judges were present and included: Stacey Scott, Elgia, Inc. Ankt Patel, Classisms Vision Care, Ethan King, Zeus’ Closet, Jenji Kuramoto, Acuity, Linh Tran, Advanced Commercial Group and Jodi Daniels, Red Clover Advisors.
After much deliberation, the judges came to a consensus for this year’s Atlanta competition.
And the winners were…
Isaac Hetzroni from the University of Florida who took home first prize with $2,500 and will advance to the U.S. National Competition. Robert Hatcher of Aurign secured second place with a $1,000 prize. Isaac Abadi from Georgia Tech came in third with a $500 award.
Congratulations again to all participants.
To learn more about future opportunities and connect with EO Atlanta, visit eonetwork.org/atlanta.
